The Digital Prism
Transparency and Managed Visibilities in a Datafied World

Shows how digital transformations and new visibilities shape how people live, how organizations work and how societies and politics operate.

Mikkel Flyverbom (Author)

9781107576964, Cambridge University Press

Paperback / softback, published 17 October 2019

182 pages
22.8 x 15.3 x 1 cm, 0.27 kg

'Similar to the work of Canadian media theorist Marshall McLuhan, this book concerns the medium rather than the message as a dynamic force in social change and affairs. Specifically, Flyverbom posits that more data, transparency, and clarity in digital technology are not necessarily mutually compatible… Much like McLuhan tried to reveal the profound ramifications of communication technology on social organization, Flyverbom sounds the alarm that more data might not mean more transparency but will rather lead to the opposite: opacity and secrecy without proper governance… Summing Up: Recommended. All readership levels.' P. P. Philbin, Choice

We live in times of transparency. Digital technologies expose everything we do, like, and search for, and it is difficult to remain private and out of sight. Meanwhile, many people are concerned about the unchecked powers of tech giants and the hidden operations of big data, artificial intelligence and algorithms and call for more openness and insight. How do we - as individuals, companies and societies - deal with these technological and social transformations? Seen through the prism of digital technologies and data, our lives take new shapes and we are forced to manage our visibilities carefully. This book challenges common ways of thinking about transparency, and argues that the management of visibilities is a crucial, but overlooked force that influences how people live, how organizations work, and how societies and politics operate in a digital, datafied world.

Introduction. The transparency formula
1. Digital and datafied spaces
2. Transparency and managed visibilities
3. People under scrutiny
4. Organizations gone transparent
5. Seeing the world
Conclusion. Life in the digital prism
Acknowledgments
Bibliography
Index.

Subject Areas: Media, information & communication industries [KNT], Organizational theory & behaviour [KJU], Business & management [KJ], Sociology [JHB]